A Young Mother With Speech Impairment and Her Daughter’s Rehabilitation

Laila (pseudonym) is a person with speech impairment. Back on 26 May 2008, she was rescued by the Tangail patrol police and kept in a public shelter home at Mirpur after filing a GD. When they were making preparations to place her in the shelter home, they realised that she was pregnant. Her situation was slightly more vulnerable than others as, due to her disability, she could not tell the reason of her pregnancy. Considering the situation and time when she was rescued, the facts as to how she became pregnant were slightly cloudy and thus, due to this gap in information, when ASK was informed of her situation, although at a delay, it could not take any legal proceedings against the person who made her pregnant and left her at that vulnerable state. On 31 October 2008, Laila gave birth to Ramisa (pseudonym) in the same shelter home. On 31 December 2012, Laila and her daughter were transferred to the Kishori Unnayan Kendra, Konabaree, Gazipur, and then later, in 2016, they were transferred to the Women and Children Custodian Safe Housing Centre under the Social Welfare Department in Gazipur. Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK)’s representatives were informed through the Centre of her prolonged stay, and the unwillingness of the Centre to keep them. Respectively, ASK’s panel lawyers communicated with the Shishu Polli Plus, Tengra, Shreepur, Gazipur, a rehabilitation centre, about their situation and they agreed to keep them. Shishu Polli Plus allows survivors to stay for three years, and trains the mother during those three years and provides education to the child in an internal school within their centre. As a GD was filed for Laila in Tangail by the Police, in order to shift her and her daughter to Shishu Polli Plus, a petition was filed at the Tangail Court by the panel lawyers in ASK’s PNGO RPDO requesting for permission. The permission was granted on 11 September 2019 following which they stayed in the Shishu Polli Plus.